Nasr rues missed opportunity for points

Felipe Nasr believes that Sauber missed out on an opportunity to return to the points at Silverstone, after he was unable to race due to a gearbox problem.

Nasr slowed on his reconnaissance lap to the grid before stopping on the approach to Stowe corner.

Marshals pushed Nasr's car back to the pit lane but Sauber quickly diagnosed a terminal gearbox problem, preventing him from joining the race.

Sauber had initially struggled for pace at Silverstone, with Nasr eliminated in Q1, but the Brazilian says that the high rate of attrition meant that it was a missed opportunity for the team, which hasn't finished in the points since Monaco.

"It was a shame what happened, I saw when I was out on the lap, going down the Hangar Straight I suddenly got stuck in sixth gear and the anti-stall kicked in, I couldn’t upshift or downshift, I tried all the procedures, turned off the car twice to try a power cycle, but nothing happened," he said.

"We did the same in the garage, we analysed what we could have done but we found out it was a gearbox failure…what can I do?"

"It was the first DNF of the year, it’s a shame [as] looking at the race, just seeing how many things happened it could have been a great opportunity for us, to maybe score a couple of points.

"I think it was the right race to be in, when I saw so many cars out on the first lap and also later in the race with the mixed conditions, these are the only things for example when we came over [to Silverstone] we knew it was going to be a difficult weekend anyway on the car side, pace wise, but when you have these kinds of opportunities it’s sad to see it go by.

"Mechanical failures happen to everyone and I was unfortunate to have it to me."